At least 1,400 children were trafficked, raped and assaulted in Rotherham over 16 years.
Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

An independent review into South Yorkshire police’s handling of child sexual exploitation has found that the scale of the force’s failure in Rotherham was not repeated elsewhere in the region.

Professor John Drew, who led the inquiry, agreed with criticisms made in previous high-profile investigations into the abuse of hundreds of children in the South Yorkshire town, and said the force’s response in the past was inadequate. But Drew added that the force had made “determined progress” since 2013 and that its response to safeguarding children and young people from abuse was now adequate and, in some cases, of high quality.

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Following the Casey report, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, said he thought a similar inquiry needed to be directed at South Yorkshire police to cover the whole force area.

Drew, a former director of social services and former chief executive of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, interviewed more than 150 people as part of the review, which was due to be published in January but was delayed to allow further opportunities for people to contribute.

Discussing the force’s handling of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in other areas of the county, Drew said: “I did not receive any direct accounts from victims and survivors or from other people that would lead me to believe that the scale of failure in Rotherham was repeated elsewhere.”

Drew focused his investigation on Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster and found that police were “more actively engaged” with the issue of CSE in Sheffield in the past. He said abuse in Rotherham in the 2000s was seen by police officers as “a burden”, while there were always officers in Sheffield who wanted to combat the crime. “There is a world of difference between these two mindsets,” he said.

Drew said he believed police engagement was hampered in Barnsley by a “limited view of what sexual exploitation might look like”, but said strategies put in place in Doncaster in the 90s in response to issues in the town at that stage led to a more positive situation on the ground.

He found that, by today’s standards, the scale of response to abuse 15 years ago was inadequate across the whole of South Yorkshire, with mistakes and missed opportunities until 2011 due to the low priority given to the crime. He made 11 recommendations for the force, but said the current leadership deserved credit for increasing the importance afforded to CSE.

He said: “I believe that the police response to safeguarding children and young people from child sexual exploitation is now adequate. Indeed, some recent work undertaken by South Yorkshire police appears to me to be of high quality.”

Drew highlighted the limitations he faced as a result of ongoing investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the National Crime Agency and South Yorkshire police. He said he had “no powers” to investigate speculation about whether police corruption played any part in failings to respond to abuse allegations.

He also revealed that the IPCC and NCA investigations would not be completed until 2017 at the earliest, and criticised the slow pace. “I cannot emphasise too strongly the harmful impact that this is having on victims and survivors, on police officers and staff, and on public confidence in policing,” he said.